I just got off the phone with a very dear friend that has just been told that this week is his last week at work. This guy has endured the collapse of his company, bankruptcy, foreclosure, surgery, the specter of cancer in his beloved wife and now his new job is done. With hollow voice he asks why. No kidding!
As a shepherd of souls, do I have the right to remind him the the Father will care for him, in light of the seeming mountain of evidence to the contrary that is piling up in his life? I ask myself if these are just “christian happy words” that we say to one another to make us feel better that we have said something in response to overwhelming questions. I have to say good bye because worship practice is just 30 min. away and our leader hates it when the bass player is late, so I hang up and head out the door, wondering what just happened to my joy.
In our new little church, we have endured a landslide of economic bad news in the lives of our people. It’s a wonder that we continue to survive and move forward in the wreckage that is the Auto Industry It is apparent that the latest news has made the rounds when I arrive at worship practice, a hollowness is in the eyes of the worship leaders face, he too has endured the downturn of his business partnership. He is a good friend of my friend.
We pray and ask the Father to meet us! We start practice. We are mostly contemporary in our style, but lately I have felt the leading to include ancient faith hymns to our worship repertory, so we are practicing “Be Thou my Vision” as well as “Open the Eyes of My Heart” and God begins to remind me, thru the music, that He can be trusted. Over the course of the next hour, the Spirit is coming along my spirit, whispering scenes of past provision and future promise, taking me down paths of fulfilled dreams and hopes that have been seen. I have begun to experience the Kingdom of God in this fallen world and it has been sweet in the midst of the destruction. God the Father has been and is “the lily of our valleys”, and once again He is giving me “songs in the night”.
It is not well but it will be, because the Father can be trusted! …..and since He can be trusted, He will be trusted now! …….and it is well, after all!
I’ve been meaning to bug you about stating a blog. Glad to see that God beat me to it. I just wanted to answer one of your questions in this post:
As a shepherd of souls, do I have the right to remind him the the Father will care for him, in light of the seeming mountain of evidence to the contrary that is piling up in his life?
As one who was part of your flock, not only did you have the right to remind me of these things…I was counting on it. Some of those seeds that you planted in my heat at that difficult time were the source of the roots that are bearing fruit in my life today.
Thanks for serving in all the ways you do.
In Him,
Jim
Not only is this your time to remind him that God will take care of him, it is time for the church to shine. Luke reminds us of the early christians looking out for one another. Sharing what they have with those in need.
Not only is this a time for you to remind people that God will take care of them, it is time for you to remind them that God uses the body (aka. the church) to do just that.
We will be praying for your people during this crazy time and we will pray that God shows up in their lives in mighty ways. I remind you that as the shepherd of their souls, you are required to lead them through the valleys as well as the mountain top times.
In His Grip,
Jim, Bernadette, Joshua and Caleb
Stephen,
I love your blog.You are very good with words, and so human and realistic relating your thoughts.
Can the Father be trusted? Oh yes…actually HE is the only one who can be trusted.
I felt very sad for all the bad things that happened to your friend…but as we can read in John 16:33 In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
Yes, I agree with Jim Slack, when he says that not only is this your time to remind him that God will take care of him, it is time for the church to shine.
“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Psalm 42:11